


may it follow you forever

by muguetmuse



Category: Gintama
Genre: Domestic, F/M, Fluff, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-23
Updated: 2018-01-23
Packaged: 2019-03-08 11:18:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13457130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muguetmuse/pseuds/muguetmuse
Summary: Sometimes, fathers make mistakes. A family can only last so long.





	may it follow you forever

For the first time in any God-given day, Umibozu could breathe and comfort. A comfort where poisoned soil and stale water and criminal activity was a home, a comfort where home could be any place with somebody – it was hard to laugh without any feeling. If he had, there was no use in a hollow life, especially if that life was wasted alone. Whatever motivated him to walk faster, he already knew. A dash of the foot, a ground of torn down civilization, the lone house in the middle of close abandonment. There, in the window, a boy with a hopping head of red hair and bouncing cowlick grinned widely next to Kouka, her own arms too occupied to smoke. Internally, he smiled more in triumph than endearing.

He had always reminded her that Kamui disliked the smell. 

“Papi!” Kamui held in his excitement, jittering only on the heels of his feet. “Kagura nearly spoke today!”

Umibozu clapped Kamui’s shoulder. His cowlick in the way, he flicked it aside, laughing at Kamui biting his cheek. “How mean, and you didn’t wait for me?”

“That’s because you’re too slow,” he swiped at Umibozu’s wrist, but he withdrew this hand, unrelenting even to his own son. 

 _He’ll grow up just fine._ Kamui blew a raspberry in retaliation, spouting names like, “I hope you get bald!” or “Stay still, old man!

The bewitching eye of his wife’s coming up behind them was inescapable. They froze in the midst of their tomfoolery, Kamui taking a bold gulp. Kouka yanked back their collars singlehandedly - man, was he a lucky man for that - father and son gazing up into a calm storm just close to brewing. 

“Four years old and he already knows how to talk back,” Kouka intoned, bending down to meet Umibozu’s eye. “Mind telling me who taught him such manners? Kamui, spend time with your sister.” 

“It’s 4 and a half,” Kamui corrected, taking Kagura into his arms. He sat on the nearest chair and poked his sister’s cheek, muttering the oddest stories. To himself, Umibozu smiled. _Yeah, those two are just fine._

“You shouldn’t be up–”

 Kouka gave him the dirtiest of looks her stoic facade allowed.

Umibozu quickly amended,  “--is what I what say if you weren’t the woman I married.”

“I wouldn’t be a very good mother if all I did was cough up blood all day, bed-ridden. It’s not every day the side effects come back. I can certainly handle a few days out of bed, Kankou.”  She looked sad for the shortest of moments. Her usually steady eyes quivered, fixated on somewhere else. “There’s no helping it anyway.”

Being the strong-willed person she was, she didn’t let that hang in the air. The expression on her face faded, but her hand twitched as if hoping for a smoke

What Umibozu would do, he thought, to rip her fate from its course away from them, their family, was a questionable number. 

Kouka straightened her back, stretching. Finding that as her way of ignoring the topic at hand, he went to the dining table and set the groceries on top. With his back turned, the wafts scented tobacco were too familiar and strong not to catch. She was looking over his shoulder, inspecting the food, perhaps thinking up another meal to make.

He wanted to tell her to take it easy. To leave it to him, to rest a little more, but because it was _her_ and because it was _their_  family, he knew she would try anything. Just as he would do to cure her, set her free from the disease that would take her away from them, and forever preserve moments like this -- a husband and wife with two brats, just thinking up their next meal. 

Only after a few seconds did he realize that his hands shook, but he silenced them as soon as he yanked the green vegetable out of the bag. 

He switched the topic and forced a laugh from his gut. “If you’re going to scold me for Kamui’s manners, you have yourself to blame. It’s too bad I impregnated such a vulgar woman.”

 A pause later, she was beside him, less focused on the food yet holding a container in her hand. Then, she blew smoke with the most fluid of ease, all orchestrated to burn his eyes and nostrils. 

“First you worry about me then insult my mothering. Take a trip downstairs,” he kneed his balls full force, Umibozu buckling over the table, “and then you’ll understand why I’m so ‘vulgar’. You bought _komatsuna_ instead of _mizuna_ by the way.” 

 _She’s a demon! A demon!_ My wife’s _a demon!_

Tears sprung, partly because he was emotionally ruined, mostly because his balls were _in_ ruin. He could tell Kouka enjoyed the sight despite her casual routine of rearranging the cabinets. Standing up, slowly but surely, gaining feeling again, he grasped the table like a stationary cane. 

“Kouka co-come o—”

“Mami said that’s a bad word only scummy men with shotgun marriages say,” Kamui kicked at his ankle from beneath the table. _Both my wife and kid are nuts!_ “But it’s okay, I’ll tell her you love her like always.”

Arms folded, Kouka nodded as the word of God touched her ears. “Since your father’s such a mongrel, let’s try having Kagura say her first word again.”

“Th-that’s right! My precious Kagura, you’ll save Daddy from being beaten up from these beasts, right?” 

Sucking on her pacifier, Kagura blinked at Umibozu with bored eyes. 

“...Right?” 

“B...B...”

“Maybe she’ll say Baddy! Papi’s sure a big Baddy!” 

His wife weakly chuckled. “Sure, Kankou.”

“Ba..Ba..” Umibozu asked to take Kagura from Kamui and lifted her up as he spilled her final words.

This time, Kagura kicked her father’s head, strands of hair flying off. “Baldy~!” 

Even if Umibozu refused to come to terms with his condition, the light laughter from his son and Kouka made everything all the while.

It wasn’t as funny when baby Kagura started chewing on his hair though.

 

.

 

Shortly after, Kouka started coughing again. Her body was eating itself away from the inside out without Kouan’s altana, and while he had a few altana crystals at hand, he knew he’d have to leave his family once more.No life is ever perfect. Neither was their family, but the one thing Umibozu wanted most in the world was to give his loved ones the closest thing to perfection. To preserve what they had as much as he can–that was his duty, the moment Kouka took his hand in hers. 

Concerned when her coughing wouldn’t stop, Kamui led his mother to her bed, tucking in Kagura with her, who kept grasping the air to join her mami. He then filled the glass by her bedside with water, kissing his mother on the cheek before sauntering over to his father.

Umibozu watched with a solemn gaze, patting Kamui on the back for a good job, and comforted the hurt that shone in the little one’s eyes who, too, shared the pain of watching Kouka withering away.

“Papi..when will Mami get better? I want her to get better.” 

He had to feign the confidence when he reassured him that one day, his mami will be better. 

“Someday, Kamui. Someday everything will be better.”

Holding Kamui by his small shoulder and glancing over at his sleeping wife and daughter, Umibozu wished so badly their situation was different. That Kamui wouldn’t even have to know what it was like to care for his own mother at such a young age and that Kouka wouldn’t have to bear the pain of being incapable of being a good mother and wife–though she was far from that, it’s something she once voiced to him. 

 

.

 

Kamui had finally begun snoring softly at the foot of the bed when Kouka stirred.

“Kankou...” she said to him, when he joined her side at night with Kagura in between, “Do you regret leaving that place with me?” 

“Don’t even ask that,” he covered his hand over hers on the pillow. 

“I’d like to think you were just as lonely as me, that we found company in each other. But Kamui seems so lonely these days, even if he has Kagura. He has to take care of so much.” Her voice was unbearably soft, skimming the night with her gentle blessing. “When I’m gone, don’t leave them alone, okay? Kagura and Kamui...they’ll need their Papi.”

“You too. They need their Mami. Kamui is attached to your hip sometimes I feel a little left out!” He smiled at the small breath of laughter from Kouka. “But I promise we’ll always be a family one way or another.”

“Such a manly thing of you to say,” Kouka began to shut her eyes, letting Kagura snuggle closer to her mother’s warmth. 

When she was fast asleep, Umibozu could only tell the night, “I’m far from it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Pretend Kouka can walk after she gives birth to Kagura for a little while for me, okay?  
> the title is based on lyrics from the song c'mon (p!atd ft. fun), if you listened to it, gold star for you.


End file.
